First of all, Rakna made a rapid mental calculation to find out how much Talys he had gained from all the monsters and it came to a hefty sum of 8460. He had killed about 250 monsters in total so on average, he had gotten 33 Talys for each kill.

As for the Items he got, Rakna couldn’t remember everything he had put inside his ring, and if he wanted to count them, he would have to take out everything. But, based on a rough estimation of what he saw, he should have collected around fifty gray Items, twenty green Items, ten blue, three orange, and one purple.

“Let’s see…” Rakna muttered as he retrieved the most important items. The first one he inspected was the purple one, dropped by the hidden boss; a red wooden statue of a centipede.

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Designation: Special Item/Totem

Name: Seed Grotto’s Crimson Totem

Rarity: Purple

Uses: 1/1

Description:

A summoning artifact linked to a Dungeon on the First Plateau. This is an Item that can only be dropped by a Hidden Boss.

Effect:

- Allows the user to summon monsters that exist in Seed Grotto, with a limit of 50, for an hour.

Note: The Boss and Hidden Boss can also be summoned. The level of the monster will be scaled to the difficulty in which the Item was dropped.

❮ ◈ ❯

“One use only but it could help me in many kinds of situations,” Rakna commented and stored it again to focus on the orange items this time. The first one was also dropped by the centipede and was a pill.

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Designation: Pill/Antidote

Name: Inferior Panacea

Rarity: Orange

Description:

One of the most basic imitations of the legendary Panacea. It was made with a concentration of powerful venom and thus is more a counterpoison than a pure healing or curing medicine.

Effect:

- Upon consumption, the user will gain immunity to most poisons for half a day.

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“I see. Simple enough,” he said and took out the second Item, which was a pair of curved daggers with dark green edges.

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Designation: Blade/Twin Daggers

Name: Praying Vehemence

Rarity: Orange

Attack Power: +80

Durability: 100%

Description:

A pair of daggers forged from the mutated scythes of a praying mantis.

Perks:

- Green Flurry: At the cost of five mana per minute, the daggers will generate a wind blade that will elongate the reach of the weapon and increase attack based on the user’s magic damage.

- Gale: Activate this ability to increase your agility and swiftness by 20% for two minutes when wielding Praying Vehemence. Cooldown: 15 Minutes.

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Rakna twirled both daggers and mused. “So, this is considered as a single Item, right?”

[Affirmative.]

“Then Sonata can probably absorb these two as well,” he said and looked at the last Item he wanted to check. It was another drop from the mantis; a sort of dark green cloak.

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Designation: Armor/Cloak

Name: Praying Shadow

Rarity: Orange

Durability: 100%

Description:

A cloak made out of the wings and scales of a praying mantis.

Perks: +50 (A) Agility / +10 (A) Defense / +5 Senses

Additional Abilities:

- Wind Blessing: At a negligible cost of mana, Praying Shadow allows the user to glide.

- Enhanced Stereo Vision: Allows the user to judge distances better.

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“This is considered armor, huh? Equip,” he said and the cloak vanished just like the other items before he felt his stats go up in consequences. When he was done with that, he had already arrived at the village. He would have to go through the rest of the loot after returning to Black Steel.

Once entering the settlement, he directly went to the house where he had separated from Gaelius but halfway there, a voice resounded from behind him, “I see you’re back.”

Rakna’s expression twitched as he turned around. He raised an eyebrow at the old man who began to chuckle. “You don’t need to look at me like that. Sneaking up behind Hosts like this is one of the few fun things I can do at my age,” he said with a smile. “So, how did it go? Did you clear the three floors?”

“I did.”

Gaelius rubbed his beard. “You probably did more, didn’t you? You wouldn’t have taken so much time otherwise. How far did you go? What difficulty?”

“I finished the normal difficulty.”

The old chief nodded. “That’s what I-”

“And the hard difficulty.”

“thought… wait, what?”

“And the fiendish difficulty.”

Gaelius opened his eyes wide in shock and before he could say something, Rakna added one last thing.

“And I killed the Hidden Boss,” he stated with a blank look.

“…you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? You’re taking revenge on me? My poor old heart is being manhandled for just playing a prank?” Gaelius said with a weary sigh.

“Just give me the rewards, old man.”

Gaelius stopped his act and snapped his fingers.

❮ ◈ ❯

Gaelius Kein has confirmed the Quest completion.

1 000 Talys added to the Balance.

100 Exp acquired.

A third reward will be given to you personally.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Frankly, I never expected you to clear the Fiendish difficulty. If you had maybe gotten to the last floors of the Hard difficulty, I might have understood but I have never seen a new Host like you clear the most treacherous difficulty of a Dungeon, along with the Crimson Centipede, one day after joining the System.”

“I’ve been told I have talent,” Rakna shrugged.

“Look at you,” Gaelius snorted. “I don’t know if you truly have that much ego or are still messing around with me. You’re quite a brazen brat for someone with that face,” he said and pulled out something from his pocket. “Here, this is the third reward.”

Rakna tilted his head as he took the object. “A badge?”

“Yes. I was originally going to give you the Steel grade, but after all of what you’ve done, this one is more worthy of you.”

Rakna scowled and used Appraisal on the emerald badge in his hand.

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Badge of Honor – Emerald

Description:

A mark of distinction distributed by the Pavilion to meriting Locals. There are ten grades:

Bronze – Steel – Silver – Gold – Platinum – Emerald – Ruby – Jade – Diamond – Ebene Diare

Each grade has its own benefits within the Pavilion. Locals have the right to give a Badge of Honor to anyone they deem worthy. The grade of the badge they offer has to be two grades lower than their own at the very least.

The holders of a High-Grade Badge of Honors are considered nobles of the Pavilion. Those who hold the rank of Diamond or Ebene Diare are also said to be even more powerful than some of the top-ranked Hosts.

Emerald Grade Benefits:

- 20% discount on all products purchased at the Pavilion.

- VIP treatment in all businesses affiliated with the Pavilion.

- Enforcement right in all areas owned by the Pavilion.

- Precedence to services.

- You can use the badge to navigate through the Plateaus you have visited before without requiring to pass by the Pavilion Hall.

Note: This badge has been automatically registered with your ID. It can now be used as so. Keep in mind that Hosts do not possess the right to give Badges to others.

To increase your rank, different conditions will have to be met and the Pavilion will have to acknowledge your achievements.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna blinked at the badge in his hand. “Old man, did you really just give me a nobility rank?”

Gaelius grinned. “That I did. How do you like it?”

Rakna gazed at the old man with squinted eyes. If he had understood correctly, this badge was quite a weighty recognition for probably Hosts and Locals alike. On top of that, he had been given the sixth rank; the Emerald Grade. That would imply that Gaelius was at least Jade Grade.

“Are you sure about this? I don’t think I’m nowhere near strong enough yet for this grade.”

“Do not fret, young man. Only Jade grade and above have strength requirements. I gave you the emerald because I believe you have the potential to surpass it. Just accept it.”

Rakna gazed at the old chief for a while before pocketing the badge. “I’m still skeptical of your supposed belief in my potential.”

Gaelius chuckled and pointed at him. “Potential… How could I find a better potential than the one of a day-old Host King with legendary and divine blood on his hands.”

Rakna’s eyes widened a bit. “You can see my titles.” He wasn’t asking but stating a fact.

“Correct. Locals have that nifty authority. However, high-level titles like yours are hard to see for most Locals. I also notice that you have veiled your Legendary Title since last I’ve seen you.”

“…” Rakna’s expression became colder as he remained silent.

“Now, now, young man,” Gaelius waved his hand. “Do not be like this. I merely want to tell you; if you are trying to hide something, the Badge of Honor might be of some help in the future if you ever become a target.”

“I see,” Rakna said and glanced at a virtual chat box that his lenses projected in his eyes. The others seemed to be done with their exploration. “I’ll be going now, old man. Though, I have a question before leaving.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“What is someone of your caliber doing here? I’m sure you could slaughter any monster that comes out of that Dungeon.”

Gaelius laughed lightly. “Don’t you remember what I said earlier? I’m here in retirement. But well, honestly, I guess you could say that I’m just on vacation.”

“I understand. In other words, this job is as easy as taking a vacation for you.”

Gaelius nodded happily. “Exactly, young man. You have it figured it out splendidly.”

Rakna deadpanned at the obvious sarcasm and turned around. “Thank you for the gift,” he said as he channeled his mana to his wings concealed inside his body which then converted the mana into a propelling force. “Artzpul.”

He shot up in the air and activated Artzpul a few times before to get to a reasonable height. He then instinctively activated the Wind Blessing of his cloak and started being carried by the wind currents. He then used Artzpul one more time to boost himself horizontally and leave the area.

Gaelius watched on with a smiling expression. “Quite a fascinating way to fly,” he commented and returned to his house whilst chuckling.